Monthly Archives: November 2012

I grabbed Immortal Coil off of the KDP list. (Now it’s time to return to my official review list, break is over).

Description from Goodreads:Two souls. One Body. Sharing is not an option…

Terrible news has turned Anaea Salis’s life upside down. There’s nothing she can do to make it right and the stranger who stops to talk to her can’t help. But when that stranger, Hunter, an ancient dragon spirit, is viciously attacked and forced to transfer his spirit into her body, Anaea’s life takes a new terrifying twist.

Hunter should have known by now not to get involved with human affairs, but there was something about the woman that drew him to her and he just couldn’t help himself. Trapped in her body all he wants is to get out, except whoever is trying to kill him is now after her.

Their only hope of survival… plunge into the deadly world of dragons.

Anaea’s life is in the gutter and she sees no hope of it looking up, until an unfortunate encounter with a good-Samaritan named Hunter turns everything on its head. Both characters, Anaea and Hunter, are easy to engage with. I got a little tired of Anaea’s self-deprivation, but understood it too. Her strength of will, even in her beaten down state, was something I appreciated. Though I did think that her willingness to put herself in danger in order to establish her independence bordered on the stupid at times. I tend to want to slap such females. Luckily her who personality wasn’t based on this characteristic so it wasn’t overwhelming. Hunter was smoke’ hot, no matter his guise, but I never could figure out why he wanted so badly to protect Anaea in the beginning. It seemed out of character for him, or at least like something the man he had been wouldn’t have concerned himself with. I can’t forget good old Grey. He was a joy. I can see a sequel based on his character easily.

I really liked the feel of this book. I know that is nondescript. It probably comes down to the language choice as much as the actual events. The end result was a certain appealing tone. My favourite parts, however, were when Hunter’s dragon nature slipped through (the tendency to hoard things, the desire to woo a female with shinies and meat, etc). It tended to draw a mental ‘Aww’ out of me. It’s so appealing to see a strong man reduced to acting cute.

I’m did see the solution to Hunter’s body problem coming a mile away, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t appreciate the sad, poetic justice of it. I also wasn’t particularly surprised by the actual reveal that brought around the conclusion at the end. (I’m trying not to give anything away here.) It didn’t happen the way I thought it would though, so I still got a surprise. Over all I’m glad to have read it and will be well up for reading the second when it comes out.

Sergeant Joseph Reaper has fought all around the world, but when his last mission ends in tragedy he returns to America a broken man. He is so mentally, and spiritually damaged that he is sent to a mental institution where they treat all his statements about Jinn’s and magical torture as the ravings of a madman. After being told all that all his suffering was a lie Joseph finally escaped and has been in hiding since. When they finally find him, the military needs him to build a new team. This team is unlike any he’s ever led. A group of strong willed supernatural women will challenge Joseph in ways he’s never experienced, or expected. These five powerful women will force him to reexamine himself, and what he’s always believed. Leading a beautiful Scottish vampire, a gothic witch, a sensitive lesbian werewolf, and the ghost of an excommunicated nun would be a lot to ask any soldier, but they may be asking too much when Joseph is asked to lead the very same Djinn that tortured him and his team for three months. Joseph is determined to give his best. He’s trying to pull the team together, but there are complications. He keeps finding himself distracted by Penny despite all the danger that might come with having a relationship with the vampire. Also, when Alhambra tells him that he’s in danger Sergeant Reaper can’t decide if it’s just another attempt by the Jinn to mess with his head, or if there is a larger conspiracy. Either way Joseph is going to do everything he can to protect his team even if it kills him, and it just might. This is a full length novel, and the first of a new urban fantasy series.

**Spoiler warning: I’m not giving away the ending or anything, but I definitely am discussing events that occur. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s surprise. You are warned.***

Here are my thoughts on the book, both bad and good. There are plenty of both. I’ll start with the negs so that I can end on a positive note.

Negatives: I probably would have liked this book better except for two things: all of the proselytizing and the fact that it reads like a 14 year old boys dream journal…wet dream journal. (It’s a strange combo I know.) Lets face it Joseph Grim has a harem. He is one man alone with seven women. One is old, one is fat (in other words undesirable), and one is unwanted for another reason. Of the remaining four…yeah, he manages to sleep with all of them. No, that’s not quite right. They sleep with him (and there is every indication that they will continue to do just that). He doesn’t even have to work for it. Women wake him up with blowjobs, attack him en masse, ogle him, grope him and generally treat him as a sex god. Hot oil wrestling, lesbian sex, copious amounts of fellatio/cunnilingus in a variety of forms, motor boating, peek-a-booes, and more all make appearances. Grim is apparently the only one who can give these women what they need, and surprisingly his combatant skills aren’t the ones required for most of the book. Seriously, even the lesbian needs to fuck him regularly. What the hell’s up with that? Plus, I have a hard time imagining that the two people who have histories of rape would be so ready to start sexing things up. Trauma is traumatic because it is traumatizing after all.

I’m ranting a little bit, I know. But these are obviously a man’s fantasy, not a woman’s. Don’t get me wrong, the sex is smokin’ hot (literally). I have no complaints on that front. It is only when all of it, taken as a whole, is considered that I find it problematic. I mean what man wouldn’t want to find his true love, who insists they keep a barely legal female sex pet, AND have a monthly alternative thrown in? Wouldn’t want to get bored or anything. Oh, and he gets to be all-powerful and a chosen of God…and commended by the president for his efforts. Honored on earth and in heaven apparently. The only thing his life is missing to be perfect is a happy family. Wait, no he has that too, two loving parents and six sisters he gets along with. I started to gag after a while. Lastly, the book REALLY needs a new edit. There are a lot of missing words/letters and that, then and than are regularly interchanged. The tense and narration could be shored up too. There is frequently a third person, past tense description followed by a first person, present tense exclamation. It is a little hard to keep up with.

Positives: Yea it’s not all bad. The book is hilarious and the humor starts on the copyright page. The women may treat Grim as a sex toy, but they also rag on him constantly. He is the butt of endless jokes and teased mercilessly. He takes it all in stride, never getting truly mad (even at his archenemy). This gives the reader implicit permission to laugh at him and I did, loudly and often. I liked how much thought went into how the vampire’s fangs work. I actually consider it an improvement on traditional fangs. While I might have gotten sick of all of the ‘Jesus died for our sins stuff’ (seriously, I could almost hear the children singing ‘Jesus loves me! This I know, ’cause the Bible tells me so’ in the background), Jesus himself was an affable character. Plus, “Christ…our Lord and Savior…and apparently cockblocker supreme.” is the most marvelously irreverent sentence I have ever read. The Colonel is one of the best characters I’ve come across in a long time. I really appreciated his contradictory constitution as well as the fact that he is presented as loved and idolized by his son. His character type is usually made out to be cruel and heartless. I liked seeing it depicted as human.

I can completely imagine this book getting straight five star rating from its male readership and largely one star rating from the women readers. But then no book can be written for everyone (and some women may actually like the more male centred scenes). It’s funny. The sex is steamy and if you overlook the editing issues the writing is really good. It ended with enough of an opening for a sequel so it will be interesting to see what happens in the future.

Note: The author has since mentioned that he is working on a new edit of the book.

So, I’ve been reading the Eternal Guardians series by Elisabeth Naughton.(Doesn’t her name make you think naughty? It’s too perfect for someone writing steamy PNR). The blub from her blog describes Eternal Guardians this way: “As unrest in the Underworld threatens, seven warriors descended from the greatest heroes in all of Ancient Greece may just be mankind’s last hope.” They’re modern day Argonauts, as in Hercules (Heracles), Jason, Achilles, etc. The whole series reminds me a lot of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, which was really my introduction to the genre as a whole. So no real complaints on my part there.

I grabbed the first, Marked, off of the KDP free list and bought the second two. I reviewed them here, here, and here. but I’m trying to decide if I want to grab the fourth and fifth too. I’m tempted, but it bothers me a little that they are six bucks apiece (pretty much the max I’ll pay for an ebook) and not lendable.

This is my new thing apparently. I have hundreds of books on my Kindle, not many people ask to borrow books though. So I don’t have that many opportunities to lend them out, but I really feel like I should be able to. I’m not having any kind of go at Ms. Naughton. I respect her choice concerning her own books. I even understand the logic. Keep the first two lendable and people might introduce their friends to the series. If they want to continue and can’t borrow the rest they’ll go buy them. It makes sense, but it is affecting my decision to buy the rest of her books or not.

Plus, and yes I know this is ridiculous, I keep a list of lendable books on Goodreads. As the number of books I own has grown I use the list as a way to see all of the covers and decide what I want to read. If a book isn’t lendable it can’t go on the list and I tend to forget I own it. The end result is that I’m reluctant to spend the twelve dollars, even though I’d like to know Orpheus and Gryphon’s stories.

I imagine this is a decision many authors and publishers face when presenting a book to the ereading world. Should ebooks be as easily loanable as physical books? Those that have lending enabled are almost easier. You don’t have to be physically present to hand it over and you know it will come back to you in the end. In my experience once a physical book leaves my shelf I hardly expect it to come back. It’s a pleasant surprise when it does.

I don’t speak for the industry, can’t even present all of the arguments, but to even my own surprise I’ve recently decided where I stand on the issue. I don’t like un-lendable ebooks. It’s decided. My current conundrum is what to do about that fact. Am I ready to boycott those that I can’t lend out and buycott [god I love that word] those that I can? I don’t know. The lending vs. not lending verdict is in, but I guess I’m still waiting on the sentencing. I’d love to hear others thoughts on the matter, have a little discussion, see where others stand. What are your thoughts?